From Inside it Devours
by BurningCrashingRaining
Summary: Harriet gave up on herself because everything she touched, she ruined. When she and Skander Hill become closer than either ever anticipated, how will she keep her secret safe? And her heart?  Rated T for swearing and anorexia.
1. A Change

**A/N: So, I just watched the Disney Channel version of 'Harriet the Spy.' Better than I expected it to be, honestly. Anyway, was I the only one who thought that Skander and Harriet would have made a cute couple? That aside, I was watching the scene in the cafeteria where Harriet goes up to her friends, and they just walk away. Harriet takes out her lunch, you know, and I was watching that, and a lightning bolt of inspiration hit me. Warning: this will be an angsty story; so if you don't like angst, don't read. So here's my idea: Harriet has just taken out her lunch, she looks at it, and suddenly, she feels like she deserves for her friends to leave her –which at that point she kinda does, just saying. So because she feels so unworthy of her friends and deserving of them leaving, she throws out her lunch- she just… stops eating. She becomes an anorexic. **

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own 'Harriet the Spy.' And obviously, parts are OOC/AU. I'm just using creative license._

Harriet watched from her seat at the table as Janie and Sport walked away from her. She sighed, and slowly pulled her lunch from her bag. Looking down at the food- her tomato sandwich, _of course-_ she lost her appetite. Janie and Sport were right to leave her. She had been so _horrible_ to them, treating them like they were invisible as she got sucked further and further into the feeling of being popular, being _liked_. But everything she had written had been a lie. She didn't know Skander personally; frankly she had no interest in him aside from the blog, and she wouldn't even _have_ an interest in him if it weren't the only way for _her_ blog to be noticed, not Marion's. Harriet didn't like the feeling she got every time she wrote an article, and attached those pictures, making it seem like she'd been up close when she'd taken them. Furthermore, Harriet hated lying. When she was younger, she'd caught her mother with another man. Her mom had made her promise not to tell anyone, not even Golly. She'd smiled at Harriet, saying it would be a mother/daughter secret. Now that Harriet was older though, she knew better. Her mom just didn't want to be forced to leave the comfort of her luxurious lifestyle- her own personal trainer/chef, the clothes, the shoes, the _connections. _Harriet had believed her then, but she knew better now.

All these thoughts and more flew through Harriet's mind at the speed of light. Feeling disgusted with herself, she stood up and threw away her lunch. '_She was a horrible person'_, Harriet decided. _'And horrible people don't deserve to eat.' _She was trashing a person she didn't even know, she was lying to everyone at her school, she had pushed her best friends away, and she was keeping a secret from her father that held the potential to tear her family apart. And if her father ever found out about the affair, and then found out that she knew all along, he would hate her.

_**Time Skip**_

**A/N: Okay, so everything else that happens in the movie has happened –I just didn't feel like I could have written it well, haha – and now we are at the scene where Skander is telling Harriet's father he quits.**

_Skander's P.O.V_

Skander had never been so angry, so_ humiliated_ in his life. This girl had come sneaking onto his set, and God knows where else, and taken a video of him yelling at her. Next thing he knew, it had gone viral, and the only thing that he was certain of at this point was that his career was ruined. And then he finds out that the girl – Harriet, he remembers distantly – is the daughter of the producer of his movie.

But he'd read her blog. She was good. And the articles about him, while they stung – she didn't even know him! – they were good. But he'd liked her other articles better. The comments that had been posted – "Boring"? No, they weren't boring; they were real, and amusing. At least, her earlier entries were. But Skander had started sensing something off in the later entries. He didn't know why he even noticed - he didn't know the girl, and she had almost certainly ruined his career!

And now, standing in the foyer of her home, he noticed how thin she was, how gaunt and pale her face looked. He noticed how she put distance between herself and her mother, almost as if she couldn't bear to be near her. How she clung to her father, as if hoping to keep him with her, no matter what. As if, she had something she was keeping from him, and she was praying desperately he wouldn't find out, or, if he did, that he would stay with her, and not blame her.

As Skander looked at her, he saw a broken girl trying frantically to pretend she was okay. But she wasn't okay. Skander knew that. He had to try something.

"I'll agree to the contract again. _If_ you stop writing."

Skander saw shock – and was that relief? – cross her face.

"Alright."


	2. Cold Water

**A/N: Yay! Second chapter. I've gotten chapters 2-4 done for "The Silent Dance", chapter 2 done for "Glow", and chapter 6 done for "The War of the Elves." You see what happens when I'm cut off from the Internet for three weeks? You get results, people! XP **

**Disclaimer: The author of this story does not own "Harriet the Spy."**

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><p>Harriet sat down at the kitchen table with a sigh. She'd agreed to give up writing so that Skander Hill would stay with her father as the producer for his movie, but somehow it had seemed a relief to give up writing, rather than the crushing disappointment she'd expected in its place. It was strange, but Harriet had no energy to spare to think about it. She was so <em>tired<em>. And the confusing part was that she didn't know why. (But somewhere deep in the back of her mind she did know why, she just didn't want to think about it). She'd gotten her father his job back, she'd made up with her friends, so why didn't she feel happy? A noise at the door made her look up.

Harriet raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here? At… eight P.M.?"

Skander walked fully into her kitchen, and leaned against the island in the middle of the room, right in front of Harriet.

"My manager seems to think that if I spend time with the girl who got me the part in my newest movie, it'll promote the movie, and my career. Your father agrees."

Harriet rolled her eyes.

"What was that for?" Skander asked.

"Nothing", Harriet replied.

"You sure? 'Cause I think it was for something", the movie star said, with a wicked twinkle entering his eyes. Harriet gulped upon seeing the glimmer in his eyes.

"No, no, it was for nothing." Harriet said quickly, backing away from him slowly.

Skander followed her slowly. "You know what I think? I think you're lying."

"No, I'm not lying." Harriet said before she turned and raced out of the kitchen, and out of the front door, with Skander hot on her heels. The star caught up with her at the park. Catching her around the waist, he pulled her back to his chest, and started tickling her mercilessly from behind. Harriet shrieked with laughter, begging, "Mercy, mercy!"

Skander replied, "Are you going to tell me what that eye roll was for?"

"Never!" she exclaimed before pulling out of his grasp and running for the grass lawn. She screeched once she realized the sprinklers had just been turned on. Skander stood on the side, just watching her. Harriet spun in circles laughing giddily. She spotted Skander, and grinned.

"Spin with me." She demanded childishly.

Smirking, the star obliged. He joined her in the spray. Harriet was suddenly stopped mid-spin as Skander grabbed her shoulders, and bowed. Straightening, he held his hand out. "May I have this dance?"

Harriet thought for a moment, then grinned, and shook her head. Sputtering, Skander said, "No?" Then he saw Harriet giggling. "Why you little minx!" Grabbing Harriet around the waist with one hand, and her hand with the other, Skander led the two around and around in a messy waltz. Running out of breath, the two flopped on the ground, beneath the sprinklers and all. Harriet looked up at the stars.

"There's Delphinus", she said, raising an arm and pointing out the constellation with her index finger.

"That one's Orion", Skander pointed out.

Harriet rolled onto her side to look at the boy lying next to her. And in truth, that's all he really was. He wasn't _Skander Hill, the movie star_ to her. He was just Skander. And Harriet was sorry she'd ever written about him to boost her blog.

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><p>"What?" Skander asked her.<p>

"Hmm?"

"You've been staring at me for about five minutes now. Kinda creepy, really."

Harriet started. "Have I? Sorry", she said absently, her mind still somewhere else.

"Where are you, Harriet? You're a thousand miles away." Skander asked softly.

Bright flashing bulbs of light interrupted the two's private conversation. Harriet jumped in fear, and then rolled into Skander, and buried her face in his chest. Wrapping his arms around her, Skander pulled the two to their feet. Keeping one arm wrapped around her and holding her close to his chest, Skander pushed through the crowd of reporters. Harriet made sure to keep her face down, and turned into Skander as much as possible, but she was sure the photographers still captured a couple shots of her. Making it out of the crowd, the two separated and began to run. When Skander saw Harriet a little ways behind him, he grabbed her hand to pull her up closer to him.

Reaching Harriet's house, the two quickly opened the doors, and piled inside. Harriet looked at the clear glass and cursed her mother.

"First thing tomorrow, I'm ordering curtains for that door." She said. "Come on. We'll have to go upstairs."

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><p><strong>Now I realize that the relationship between the two is moving quite fast, but I see each of them (Skander and Harriet) as very intense characters, so I think that a relationship between the two of them really would move that quickly. And if you'll also keep in mind, Harriet is anorexic – which wasn't shown all that much in this chapter, but it will be – so I think that she really depends on Skander a lot more than she's willing to admit. Don't forget also, that Skander has been a movie star since he was pretty young, so he never really got to experience something normal. And I think that Harriet makes him feel normal, thus the quickly moving relationship. I don't really write these characters, they write themselves.<strong>

**Love!**


	3. Author's Note

To My Readers:

I have only one thing to say: I am so sorry. Life kind of grabbed me, and beat the crap out of me. One of my readers sent me a PM, and it sort of woke me up. I'm working on finishing this story, but there a couple of issues. The first is that I was in a really dark place when I started writing my Harriet story, and I'm really loathe to put myself back in that space when I've worked so hard to get out of it. The second issue is that I had ALL my stories on a flash drive and I somehow managed to misplace it. I have, however, been thinking of dramatically revamping the story. If that's something you'd be interested in/okay with, let me know. Ultimately, the final decision comes down to the author, but I like letting my readers have some sway over the stories they like. Let me know if you would like to see the story continued even if it's in a more mature way. And not as 'lemons' mature, but emotionally. Thank you for your continued support through my horribly erratic updating schedule.

~BCR~


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